Learn how pickpockets steal. See what they look like. Never become a victim. Start with the PICKPOCKETS! link. Read up before you travel, not after you become a pickpocket's victim or a con artist's fool. Turn your travel concerns into travel confidence, then hit the road and have the last laugh on the thieves!

Nuncio. Pickpocket in Naples

Wilmer. Pickpocket in Lima

Pacco man. Bait and switch thief in Naples

Al'alla. Retired pickpocket in Tangiers

Talking to thieves in an opium den

Pickpockets in St. Petersburg, Russia

Analysis: how pickpockets work

Gangsters in Colon, Panama

Dangerous night with gangsters

Thiefhunters in Paradise, the research and education repository of Bob Arno and Bambi Vincent, is about pickpockets, thieves, scammers, gangsters, con artists, and travel. Learn how to avoid becoming a victim of thieves.

Pickpockets and property theft are the travel industry’s dirty little secret. Understandably, no one wants to talk about them. Not the travel magazines with advertisers to placate, not the boards of tourism with countries to promote, not travel agencies or packagers with clients to enthuse, or cruise lines with a carefree ambiance to emphasize. And why should they? It’s just a petty crime.

Who is to reveal the status quo but a stage-stealing Swede and his fancy accessory?

Because it represents our passion, as well as an integral part of our career, we’ll continue to skulk underground and pound the pavement. Sometimes though, on sweltering trains so crowded I’m pressed like a daisy in a dictionary, I’ll question our endeavors and the gritty reality of mingling with outlaws. Then we’ll catch a thief. We’ll capture a slick steal on video, which will later be used to illustrate our presentations to the public and help train police departments. We’ll discover some new artifice, an old trick twisted to exploit the moment. And that is our reward.

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The world's best pickpockets challenge Bob Arno to a match of skills. In this National Geographic documentary, a gang of pickpockets demonstrate how they steal and reveal a human side that victims can't imagine. Then—an amazing celebratory dinner with six thieves morphs into a challenge that might be one step too far for Bob Arno.